VIDEO: The Help (2011)

Mr. Mendo joins forces with the Rosen Hacker for one of the worst Best Picture Oscar nominees ever, The Help! Based on Kathryn Stockett’s novel, Emma Stone is a White Savior character in 1960s Mississippi who writes a book about the black maids in town (Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer), which makes all the white people in town feel bad about racism. It also makes a buttload of money for Emma, while leaving the maids worse off then before. Whoops!

Also in this episode, Mendo and Rosen get a lot of help from their fellow reviewers as they try to figure out just how many cameos can physically fit in one review!

But I wanted Disco Kryptonite! I don’t know why, but I sometimes want to hang out with a cop, a construction worker, a soldier, a cowboy and an Indian! It’s freaking me out!

MichaelANovelli

That makes 14 guest stars I’ve had this year! You’ll never catch up at this rate, Sofie! 😉

Sofie Liv

We’ll see! .. I just make one single giga video with thirty randomn guest appearences 😛

Or maybe it’s not guest apperances which count but originality in concept! I total win in that area thus far… yeah.. erh.. hrmpf hrmpf.

MichaelANovelli

Forgotten our bet already?

Sofie Liv

Our bet was about whom was going to win that price for best cross-over video next time the year changes. That’s not about having more guest appearances but just make the better more entertaining original cross-over vid.

So far I had a cross-over where I actually took on the Holmes character while dearest Jill was Watson, and one where I moved out in a theatre to do phantom of the opera. So I say that I am still in the game! 😛

Beside I have a couple of people on hold for cross-overs… what do I win any-way?

MichaelANovelli

Aha! But this is all part of my plan! By the time it comes time to vote again, all the voters will have been on my show! Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Sofie Liv

damn.. that plan is actually pretty good.. kind of cheating but good..

Oh shocks.. TO THE SKYPE MEETINGS! where I shall befriend more video producers whom can vote for me. Cause I am that adorable, I ‘ll just talk probably to them and win them over.

lol, i love that even in printed form your marvelous chemistry shines through:) you two are like a mismatched buddy cop team, over coming your differences in order to fight evil, lol:)

MichaelANovelli

Yeah, I knew Sofie would fit in well around here. Glad Albert took my advice!

Sofie Liv

Your glad Albert took the advice. I am so glad you gave him such a device and he took.

Boy am I glad!

… that’s an idea, for our next cross-over, buddy cop movie! “The other guys” or some-thing, there’s tons of them out there isn’t there?

you even have the cop glasses on, you’ll be the stellar proof never cracking a smile, and I’ll be the highly annoying loud intruder you know have to work with.
Even thought you don’t even want a new partner, because of what happened to the last one. You know, that crane-berry sauce and jellyfish accident.

Her was never able to as much as look at a herring ever since…

MichaelANovelli

This must happen!

Tim Terrell

Rosen is too young to remember the Miss Jane Pittman tv movie. I know Mendo wrote that joke. Oh yeah…The black characters in these types of movies (i.e. most movies) don’t need to grow or have an arc. They are here to represent the oppressed as a situation only. They are only here to be the reason that the beautiful white character–who can actually make a difference in the world– changes.

So Octavia Spencer and the ditzy blonde didn’t deserve their Oscars? I didn’t see the movie, but my guess is they won because they represented that people of all races can be friends (as long as the minority is working for the white person), and their subplot offered a rest from the taxing discussion of racism. Most of the American audiences do not like to even discuss race, even though it permeates society. Great, funny and insightful review, btw.

MichaelANovelli

Viola Davis was also nominated, even though I imagine the casting sheet for her character literally said “Female Morgan Freeman”. I swear, there are parts in the film where you can actually *see* her say to herself, “What am I DOING here?”

Mike

Did anyone one her by chance see Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer’s interview about their roles on The Tavis Smiley Show? She seemed to be passionatly defensive her work if you asked me. It got particularly interesting when she said the hostile response to black actors who take play less than heroic roles were “destroying” possibilities for actors. It’s was well worth a watching!

I think a best picture nominee shouldnt make you think of Human Centipede…but hey, thats just me, lol:)

MichaelANovelli

No, only Congessmen should remind you of The Human Centipede!

Monterey Jack

What a crappy movie.

MichaelANovelli

Indeed! Insulting, too!

Monterey Jack

Why does EMMA STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONE not have a period-appropriate beehive hairdo? She looks like Amy Irving circa Carrie, and that was OVER A DECADE LATER.

MichaelANovelli

Laziness? Lack of caring? Ineptitude? The list just goes on and on…

Prince O’Wales

Also not everyone wears the same hairstyle at any given time

MichaelANovelli

Personally, I didn’t even notice. But not doing any kind of research is sort of my thing…

Prince O’Wales

It’s not even a matter of research. Saying all women wore beehive hairdos would be like saying everyone wears asymmetrical emo cuts. sure it was popular but not everyone will subscribe to it. There is your historical hair analysis for the day

MichaelANovelli

Well, then, it’s probably for the best that I didn’t bring it up, then!

Torgeaux

Nice review. I really enjoy your comedic timing and sense of humor. You are also a talented writer as well being able to consistantly put out an entertaining 20 minutes. I especially liked this episode because you ripped on another Southern movie. I grew up in the deep South during the same era as “Forrest Gump” and “The Help.” Neither of these movies come even close to portraying what the South was like in the 1960’s. It was far more boring and malevolent than has ever been portrayed in film. Just think “total fear of a slave revolt” and you will get most of the reason for the Jim Crow South.

MichaelANovelli

Yes, but history can never be presented as more than slightly different from the present. It’s human nature, it seems…